What ties a musical style to a region?

What ties a musical style to a region?
by tepples on 2011-06-29 (#80782)

In this post, Banshaku wrote:

I like that [Super Bat Puncher] looks and play like a typical japanese game. The only thing that gives it out is: the music. The arpeggios, which is a specific european style, gives it out.

True, tracker style arpeggios are far more common in European C64-influenced NES soundtracks, but they're not unheard of in Japanese soundtracks. Case in point: Balloon Fight and Doki Doki Panic/Super Mario Bros. 2.

So what else makes a game sound Japanese, North American, or European?

by Shiru on 2011-06-29 (#80785)

I think, the most major difference is the structure.

In european game music it was either 4/4 simple songs with verse-chorus structure and the verse/chorus parts that repeats few times (see Cybernoid on C64), or progressive rock-like music (Follin's music). Japanese music is different by structure, it usually is not structured in verse-chorus way, and parts only repeats in a row, not part-other part-first part again.

Japanese music also usually has very clear direction from the beginning to the end, with increasing tension, and loops also serves as tension release point. This structure somehow allowed japanese music to sounds not too repetitive, despite it is often less than minute long, and european music often is few minutes long (except for James Bond Jr. which had very short music pieces).

It is also more like west vs east musical traditions (for japanese music it is also a lot of influence from western and european music of 70s), so there is not much difference between american and european music.

by mic_ on 2011-06-29 (#80786)

The influences also seem to vary a bit. A lot of japanese-made NES soundtracks sound like they's been inspired a lot by metal / hard rock.

The european musicians on the other hand were probably inspired more by synth and techno music. And in some cases folk music, or whatever you should call it (think Solstice and Asterix).

As for american-made NES soundtracks.. I can't name a single good one (no offense to the creators).

by Shiru on 2011-06-29 (#80790)

Metal/rock influence is indeed very strong in japanese video game music of 1980s. I guess it is because this kind of music was popular there back then. There are no doubts it is rock/metal, in early CD games for PCE CD and Sega CD you can often hear recordings of actual rock/metal music.

by Dser on 2011-11-12 (#86217)

I think even influenced a lot by western music, Japanese music stays very special. Most of times you will tell a Japanese track from a western one (American or European), even if it's with English text.
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by ccovell on 2011-11-12 (#86224)

A LOT of Japanese game music was influenced by either rock/metal, YMO, or Casiopea, so the styles tend to get really close to those bands (if you check them out.) For European music, look to 80s electro, dance, house, pop (and rock) for influences. Also, progressive rock and Jean-Michel Jarre get their own categories.

by B00daW on 2011-11-13 (#86243)

That makes me wonder what is the influence of "North American" music? Much that I've heard, outside of its sparsity and lack of quality, is jazzy or bluesy.

Anyone care to chime in?

by Drag on 2011-11-13 (#86259)

B00daW wrote:
That makes me wonder what is the influence of "North American" music? Much that I've heard, outside of its sparsity and lack of quality, is jazzy or bluesy.

Anyone care to chime in?

Jazz and Blues were pretty much invented here in North America, so you can get some pretty distinctly US sounding music by employing some jazz techniques, as opposed to employing techno or classical techniques, for example.

Though these days, you can also get some distinctly US sounding music by using sparse drum-machine-styled beats and singing the same 3 notes over and over.

by Bregalad on 2011-11-14 (#86281)

I am the only one who thinks that what makes music, and in particular video game music so good is diversity ?
Come on listening exclusively jazz/blues or exclusively techno would suck ass, but in games you find various styles fitting various situations and this is what is so great about game music - to have many genres in a single "album".

Jazz and blues techniques were definitely used in japanese NES games, the first that comes in my mind is Earthbound, but it was probably used somewhere else too.

What I particularly like is when they mix traditional japanese instruments with modern pop instruments/synths, then it gets really amazing, such as in the amazing soundtrack of the PS2 game "Atelier Iris - Eternal Mana".

I don't kow many western games so I'm not too sure. Most games by Rare were done by David Wise which is an amazing composer, I honestly can't tell the difference between his style and the Japanese style. He's probably better at Rock than anything else, but he has varied his styles a lot too, for example the Ice level of Battletoads, or the ambiant tunes in Solar Jetman, are very good too.

Music by Neil Baldwin and Albetro Gonzales can be identified by the havy use of arpeggios which is hardly ever used in Japanese games. I admit I'm not found of it but it sounds very good depending on the song. Whoever did the music in Solstice falls in this category too (I'm not sure whether this game was made by american or european people but it definitely doesn't sound japanese).

by Shiru on 2011-11-14 (#86286)

David Wise, Neil Baldwin, Alberto Gonzales, Tim Follin (of the Solstice) all are top European VG composers. Their did very quality stuff.

I can't recall any American NES game with music of that quality (or that of Japanese music). I think, there are some unknown but certain reasons for this.

by Drag on 2011-11-14 (#86319)

If you want a decent idea of what American vg composers sound like, try Virt.

by Shiru on 2011-11-15 (#86339)

Virt is great, but he is a modern composer, unfortunately he wasn't around back then.

by mic_ on 2011-11-15 (#86343)

Jon Dunn and Jeroen Tel are a few other european composers that did some good stuff on the NES, even if they worked more with the C64.

by RushJet1 on 2011-11-16 (#86410)

Shiru wrote:
Virt is great, but he is a modern composer, unfortunately he wasn't around back then.

virt scored a bunch of games on the gameboy color, so he kind of counts

by ionustron on 2011-11-17 (#86470)

no love for Mark Van Hecke?

by Drag on 2011-11-18 (#86510)

Shiru wrote:
Virt is great, but he is a modern composer, unfortunately he wasn't around back then.

I know, it's a complete shame. The NES doesn't exactly have an abundance of American-produced games either. I only know two off the top of my head, StarTropics 1 and 2, and they only really stick out to me because of how spectacularly they're coded.

Bregalad wrote:
Jazz and blues techniques were definitely used in japanese NES games, the first that comes in my mind is Earthbound, but it was probably used somewhere else too.

Of course! Jazz and blues aren't exclusive to America, you know. However, I believe you'd find a lot of jazzy sounding stuff if you rounded together all of the American VG composers who would've been around back then.

Of course, if you did that now, you'd find a lot of hip hop, and even then, hip hop isn't exclusive to America either. Kazumi Totaka can make some nice hip-sounding stuff; the sewer stages in Yoshi's Story, and the credits theme of Luigi's Mansion (and a few other songs in there) for example.

ionustron wrote:
Mark Van Hecke

I like his music particularly due to his ability to take pre-existing themes and twist them into bigger compositions and varieties. The only downfall is that his music was mainly featured in some pretty mediocre games.

Back in my hayday, I was a fan of Thomas Mogensen (Drax), and a lot of the stuff Vibrants did. Thomas specifically had a pretty nice jazzy style that I identified with fairly well. Most of this was in Denmark though, so these are European composers. However, despite being European, I don't remember much techno-style music.

by tepples on 2011-11-19 (#86530)

Drag wrote:
Kazumi Totaka can make some nice hip-sounding stuff; the sewer stages in Yoshi's Story, and the credits theme of Luigi's Mansion (and a few other songs in there) for example.

But then listen to all the K.K. songs in Animal Crossing to hear how much Mr. Totaka's range can vary.

by FinalZero on 2011-12-09 (#87326)

Disclaimer: I know nothing about music or music theory.

What does the music in NES RPGs sound like? Are they eastern, western, or have elements of both? How are composers like Nobou Uematsu and Koichi Sugiyama organized/treated?

by Shiru on 2011-12-09 (#87327)

Sound style in Japanese RPGs is definitely eastern, but music genres and styles they employ could be of any roots, because their goal is to create certain atmosphere for a certain location.